Thunderstorm
by Bookworm Gal
Summary: Electrical surges and power outages can be very dangerous things. Especially if you're outside your own game at the time. Of course, there is a reason that the games are connected to a surge protector in the first place. He possesses a very important job. And he intends to complete that job of protecting the inhabitants of the arcade's games from harm. It isn't always easy though.
1. A Storm on the Horizon

**Uh… I should just stop starting up new stories. I keep getting inspired and now I have far too many going at the same time. But I have a very good excuse this time. I love Disney. I absolutely love it and a huge portion of my childhood involves their movies and their channel. I also love "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," so Disney making a wonderful movie that's essentially a combination of that and "Toy Story" by using video games? Who could resist? **

"**Wreck-it Ralph" is an absolutely wonderful movie. It really is. All four of the main characters are relatable and you just want to see them succeed. It also had a villain with a rather smart plan that only unraveled because of two things beyond his control: Ralph's midlife crisis and an image on the console. It very easily could have ended up with the villain continuing with his comfy life while forcing Vanellope to remain miserable. Even the side characters are interesting enough to make you wonder about them on the second viewing. Honestly, I have no idea where my current fascination with the Surge Protector came from…**

**Basically, it isn't my**** fault that I was inspired by this story. I just hope that it doesn't end up insanely long. And I warn you now that I have no idea whatsoever what sort of updating schedule it might have. Just sit back and enjoy the show. And review. I love reviews. They make me smile.**

Thunderstorm

He wasn't the oldest inhabitant of the arcade. Technically, that title belonged to Mr. Litwak. And a couple of games were still here from before the owner invested in a proper power outlet. Not that many by this point, but a couple. Before that, the consoles were vulnerable to the whims of thunderstorms and electrical surges. It was mere luck that anything survived that chaotic and disorderly time. When the man finally invested in a surge protector for the arcade, the game characters were forced over time to adapt to his rules and security measures. But they were safer and he did his job, even when they hated him for it.

He was the Surge Protector; both a location between the games and an anthromorphic personification of the Game Central Station intended to interact with others. It let him actually develop a personality. Most of the time, surge protectors were installed to protect a computer, a television, or maybe a single game system. There was nothing much to interact with. Even if there was a console connected, there wasn't usually enough for characters to migrate between systems. A private home might have one or two rather than dozens. There would be no game jumping, no trips to Tappers, and no need to worry about characters dying outside their native games. Without all the traffic, he wouldn't need to be anything more than a piece of technology intended to keep delicate circuits from overloading.

He wasn't programmed to be anything. He didn't _have_ programming. He didn't have the delicate components necessary to have programming and code. The Surge Protector was, in essence, a series of power outlets attached together with metal oxide varistors and gas discharge tubes to resist against excessive power and an overload protection switch to the power strip to kill off the electricity before damage could be done. While helpful at completing his purpose, MOVs and GDTs weren't meant to contain information like a microchip. He wasn't meant to have a physical body or a personality. But having so many games and so many characters depending on him for protection, even if they rarely seemed to consider it and they were resistant to his orderly rules, meant some of their autonomy began to wear off on him over the years. He crafted an appearance and personality that reflected his purpose. He'd been informed that he was "boring," "unimaginative," "obsessed with rules," and "dull," but none of them seemed to realize that having any form of personality was impressive since they'd all been programmed into existence rather than having to form self-awareness in order to fulfill his task.

His job went above and beyond that of just a surge protector. He was _the_ Surge Protector. He couldn't and wouldn't interfere with what occurred inside the games themselves, but he was supposed to prevent outside problems from reaching them. Typically guarding against excessive electricity would be enough, but he included other potential problems. Anything that entered and exited games was monitored and assessed for their potential threats. He needed to be able to interact with the characters. He needed to discourage characters who suffer from one-hit knock-outs from wandering randomly into games with deadly traps and excessively-violent landscapes. He needed to keep them from transferring and leaving behind too many foreign objects from other games in case they caused problems to game play or captured the players' attention. He needed the ability to interact with the characters in order to protect them, so he created the blue glowing image of a bespectacled man in a uniform with a clipboard that served as the closest thing he could have to a body.

He could understand why his rules, his regulations, and his security checks made the characters hate him. Games were meant to be fun; he was meant to be the responsible one. He maintained order and restricted them. He was a hindrance to their actions. But someone had to guard them from any dangers that might pass through the Game Central Station, electrical or otherwise.

He watched them, going about their lives and ignoring him except during his random security checks. He watched old games become unplugged and new ones replace them. He saw characters vanish or become homeless when their console was detached. When Q*bert, Coily, and the others were left without a game, the Surge Protector focused more on resisting and blocking electrical surges rather than cutting off the power to prevent overloads. Losing all power with no game to hide in would be just as much a death sentence for them as being knocked into a pit of spikes in a platform game.

Turbo was a mistake. The original fiasco that led to the unplugging of two games occurred back when the surge protector was first added, before he'd gained a personality or any true awareness of the complexity of his required job. He didn't pay attention or care what the characters did back then when they moved between games. It was only later, sometime after the two games were taken away, that the Surge Protector began to focus on other threats to the consoles and began to work on more than just guarding against excessive electricity. By that point, Turbo should have been in the past and no longer any concern. There was no logical reason to think about the troublesome character and no reason to believe he escaped when no one else from the two games did, but that didn't prevent the personification of the Game Central Station from wondering how he could have missed the renegade character sneaking between games until the arrival of Sugar Rush to the arcade.

The Surge Protector knew he _should_ have noticed. Even with the presence of hundreds or thousands of characters in the entire arcade, he should have noticed one slipping between games and not coming out. How many times did Turbo slip into a game and reinvent himself into someone new only to do it again when another racing game became more popular? The only way to guess would be to examine the number of those particular games that lost a character or completely stopped operating properly just as another game stole the spotlight. Even that might not work if he tried to be subtle or more careful in the past rather than completely taking over like he did in Sugar Rush. The only one who would ever know for certain how many game jumps he might have performed would be Turbo himself and it would take a miracle and a legendary hacker to pull together enough code to ask him. It might be theoretically possible depending on what exactly he'd manipulated in order to create his persona of King Candy and if there was some tiny fragment that wasn't completely destroyed by resetting the system, but the Surge Protector doubted that anyone would ever try to put him back together even if something did remain by a strange twist of fate. But he would keep a closer eye on the entrance to Sugar Rush just in case.

He was thankful to Wreck-it Ralph and his friends for fixing that long-ago mistake, though it was hard for him to express that particular emotion properly. Actually, displaying most emotions was a challenge for the Surge Protector, but he wasn't even supposed to have an identity in the first place and it took time to develop emotions. All those quirks, interests, and habits took time to accumulate into something that the characters would recognize as his personality and feelings. So it wasn't surprising that it required practice to perfect them and it took very strong events to prompt him into appearing as anything except bored disinterest. Maybe if he remained in the arcade for another couple of decades he would be able to do a better job at being relatable and demonstrating his emotions, but he doubted that he'd be that lucky. Regardless, he was thankful that his mistake of not paying attention to the glory-seeking Turbo back in the old days was finally corrected.

The first time Vanellope Von Schweetz left her game, the Surge Protector made sure to meet her for one of his "random" security checks and patiently accepted whatever behavior she might display. News traveled fast among the other games, so he was very much aware of how his inability to stop Turbo from starting his game jumping cut her off from her true place in the game and trapped her for fifteen years. He was supposed to protect the games from incoming threats and he'd failed her.

She was escorted out by Ralph the night after the entire "Cy-bug and Turbo/King Candy" fiasco, the girl in the green hoodie zipping around in excitement at being outside her game for the first time. Her short-range teleportation made her hyperactive movements even more chaotic to track. From his understanding, her "glitch" was a mildly corrupted form of her special ability that all racers in her game possessed and she was originally supposed to vanish and appear in a cloud of sugary sparkles rather than a flash of blue pixilation according to his research about the game. She was mostly back to how she was before Turbo's interference, but not all the effects of his tampering were gone and thus the girl was teleporting around in blocky bits of data.

Of course, appearing anywhere within the Game Central Station was one of the perks of being a personification of the place. When she got bored with trying to escape him, she started waving her arms through the electrical figure and asking if he was a ghost. Once the Surge Protector felt she'd demonstrated his normal intangibility enough for one day, he increased the power maintaining his form so that he was solid and she squeaked in surprise. The meeting wasn't perfect, but he asked the girl his standard questions and she called him a "boring pain in the gumdrops." He'd been called worse.

The Surge Protector continued to record and catalogue her movements in and out of her game, just like he did the inhabitants of every game. He observed that she and Ralph often vanished into each other's consoles as soon as the day was over. In a similar and interesting development, Fix-it Felix and Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun were spending an equal amount of time together. While inter-game marriages were not a common occurrence, he was only mildly surprised when they announced the wedding. Everyone who went said it was rather nice and that they were happy for the couple.

Everything settled back down into a pattern. He could predict like clockwork many of the characters' actions and where they would go. After the game jumping and Cy-bug threat, it was nice to only have to worry about cherries being carried out of Pac-man. And weather reports.

He remembered when Mr. Litwak first connected a computer to the surge protector. It finally provided a small connection to the world outside of the Game Central Station. He couldn't enter the games he protected and he couldn't really enter the computer system, but he could pick up hints and pieces from it if he really concentrated on that connection. Locating anything specific was practically a nightmare, but it gave him something useful to do during the day when only homeless characters or the occasional background character would be outside of the games. He could observe the clock to tell the hour of the day. He could skim fragments from the internet sites the man visited the most, providing a few interesting facts about non-arcade games. And he could sometimes find the local weather report. Keeping track of upcoming weather problems helped him do his primary job. A storm was when it was most likely for a power outage or an electrical surge to occur. When there was a potentially dangerous storm approaching the area, he would switch the standard "don't die outside your game" to the more specific "don't be outside your game during a power outage" and encouraged the characters to return home. They didn't always listen to his warnings, but enough paid attention that he was thankful to have even the limited ability to find possible threats to their safety via the connection to the computer.

It was a thankless job for the most part and it certainly went beyond what he was designed to do, but he fulfilled his task without complaint.

* * *

After a lifetime of hiding from the authorities and trying to earn the right to race, Vanellope found it a little strange to adapt to being accepted by the other drivers. It was something she'd always wanted, but there were days where it was hard to forget how Taffyta and the others treated her. They tried to be nice now and sometimes she could even consider them her friends, but the memories of years of insults, tormenting, and being shunned didn't vanish overnight. It made it hard to be close to them at times, even when she knew that at least part of their behavior was because of altered coding. She could forgive them for the past and enjoy racing with them, but trust took time to recover from years of be persecuted for being a glitch. And if she was having a particularly hard day, she'd start wondering if they were only nice to her now because she was their leader. Still, things weren't that bad in general. They did treat her better now _and_ she could race.

And now she had Ralph. He'd almost always come to watch her race for a position for the next day's roster, finding a spot in the bleachers between some of the candy civilians. And every few days, she'd skip out the Random Roster Race and instead spent the evening with her best friend. Sometimes they stayed in Sugar Rush. Other times they would slip over to his game. And lately they were starting to explore other places, especially on Saturday evenings since the arcade was closed on Sundays and they would have plenty of time. She loved being outside her game.

It almost didn't matter when they went or what they did. She just loved being able to go somewhere new. Vanellope refused to be contained or trapped any longer. Granted, Ralph insisted on her staying with him during these explorations and he would never let her go into a game he didn't know without being extremely careful. And bringing an armed Calhoun as back-up. After seeing the Cy-bugs up close, the girl accepted his caution as a sensible idea. But that hint of restraint barely made an impact on her nearly-insatiable desire to make up for years of confinement to a single game where everyone hated her.

She'd join Ralph for a visit to Tapper's, making him chuckle by blowing bubbles in her root bear and spinning on her stool. She'd poked her head into Hero's Duty while the Cybugs were inactive so she could look at the building her friend climbed once to gain a medal. She even tagged along for a Bad-Anon meeting even though Ralph pointed out she wasn't a bad guy. That was particularly interesting. She'd brought sweet snacks from her game to bribe her way in if necessary and listened to creepy zombies, a fire-breathing reptile, and a mixture of other villains discuss the difficulties of fulfilling their role in the games. She probably would have normally gotten bored sitting around listening to adults talk about themselves if she didn't remember how she'd been treated during King Candy's reign. She wasn't a bad guy, but he certainly treated her like one. Clyde offered to let her speak about her experience, but she declined the rather nice ghost and settled for perching on Ralph's shoulder. She had a good time and the other bad guys seemed to like having her around. Vanellope guessed that, just like her friend, they enjoyed having someone realize that they were rather friendly when they weren't playing their part in the game. Honestly, she really began to wonder why every other cotton candy-headed character in the arcade couldn't figure out that they didn't need to be scared of or hate the bad guys.

The racer enjoyed every moment outside her console. Well, maybe not _every_ moment. Almost every single time Ralph entered or exited a game, that blue humanoid collection of static popped up to question him. The first time she saw the Surge Protector, she thought he was kind of cool-looking. He was practically as fast as she was at glitching and he was like a hologram. He was just so different than anything in Sugar Rush. Then he did something to turn solid and touching him went from a weird crackling sensation as her hand passed through to a stinging shock, ending her fun. Then she learned how stiff and boring he was. There weren't any teachers in her game, but Vanellope imagined he'd be the kind to put students to sleep. And when Ralph later complained that the "random" security checks always happened to him, the girl decided to make the Surge Protector into her new mortal enemy. She really wasn't that trusting of authority figures after her life as a glitch (carefully ignoring the fact that being a president technically made _her_ an authority figure), but picking on Ralph was inexcusable.

Random teleportation around the Game Central Station, throwing gummy worms through the intangible figure, and one time rocketing her kart out of her game in an attempt to run him over were all tried when she was meeting her friend at his game and was unsupervised. It wasn't like it could hurt the blue figure, but she could make his day miserable just like he was apparently trying to do to her friend. Granted, he rarely reacted with more than mild annoyance, but it was at least something. When Ralph finally learned about her war against the boring, nearly-emotionless Surge Protector (the kart blew away all chances of keeping it secret), he drew the line and told her to stop. He pointed out that while the bureaucratic entity might be a pain to deal with, she was the one acting like the racers who smashed the Lickity-Split and shoved her into a chocolate puddle. Though Vanellope argued that she was nothing like that, she agreed to keep her acts of rebellion down to a more reasonable level. Thus, she started devising new and more unusual answers to the Surge Protectors questions.

But other than dealing with the most boring person in the entire arcade, she loved her life. She got to race all day and she got to hang out with Ralph at night. Sometimes she got to see Felix and Calhoun (she couldn't imagine anyone calling the woman "Tamora" except for the woman's husband). They were fun in their own way, though Felix tended to worry more than even Ralph did about her safety and Calhoun could be sort of intense when it came to solving a problem. Her automatic solution seemed to involve violence or the threat of violence. And if that didn't work, she blasted away until there was nothing left to be a problem. Needless to say, she might make it a little less risky when they visited an unknown console, but she also made those around them nervous about setting her off. But Vanellope found it interesting that Felix managed to smooth out her rough edges while she helped the hammer-wielding hero demonstrate he possessed an actual backbone underneath all that well-mannered and friendliness. The pair balanced each other out like how some candy did better with both a sour and a sweet flavor together.

She wasn't programmed with parents or siblings. She didn't even have them in her back story. That didn't mean Vanellope didn't recognize her family when they decided to drop into her life with a medal, a magic hammer, and a hover board and kicked King Candy out of power. She was still the closest to Ralph, but Felix and Calhoun were just as important in their own way. They weren't quite parents, but they weren't just friends either. They were somewhere in between. Between Felix's desire to fix everything ranging from just a bad day to hurt feelings, Calhoun's violently-protective streak that she directed towards anyone she considered under her command, (regardless of whether it was her soldiers, the wrecker who was still a little nervous about her reactions, the little girl who kept trying to borrow the hover board for racing against Sonic someday, and her husband), and Ralph's wonderful combination of fun big brother and proud father, Vanellope figured she had enough parental figures she needed in her life. It was certainly a step up from living alone among the garbage.

Today was Saturday, which was quickly becoming her favorite day of the week. They'd had a ton of players today since the kids didn't have to go to school and one of them managed to have Rancis knock Taffyta into a pile of vanilla icing. The girl was still trying to get the stuff out of her hair. As soon as the final race of the evening was over, Vanellope ran for the exit. With the arcade closed on Sundays, there wasn't any Random Roster Races until later and she was planning to take full advantage of her free time.

Crossing the border of Sugar Rush was now as easy as breathing. No longer was it an un-crossable barrier for her. She smiled to herself, marveling at the simple act of leaving her console. After all this time since King Candy's demise, she still enjoyed that new freedom.

Her musings about how easy it was to do something that once was impossible were brought to a halt as she reached the Game Central Station itself and a familiar buzzing erupted. Vanellope rolled her eyes as her current nemesis appeared in front o her with his clipboard.

In his bored and disinterested tone, the Surge Protector asked, "Name?"

"Admiral Snotbubble, the Supreme Commander of the Candy-coated Hobo Army," she recited without hesitation. "You can join us if you're willing to bring me my weight in marshmallows. Or you could surrender and become my obedient servant in charge of giving my army foot massages. Either way works for me."

"Name?"

"Sheriff Hairball of the Giant Feline Police Department. I'm investigating a string of cat burglars stealing all the catnip and rock candy from the city."

"_Name_?"

"Sonic the Hedgehog," she declared. "The soon-to-be _second_ fastest character in the arcade."

"It would be easier for everyone if you would be more cooperative, President Von Schweetz," he stated, glancing up briefly from the clipboard in his hand.

"Well, you already know my name, Genius," she pointed out, crossing her arms. "And you saw where I came out. If you're so worried about making things easier, why do you bother asking stuff you already know?"

"Protocol. I'm merely following the proper procedure."

She shook her head in annoyance, "Who in the world came up with the procedure? I should find them and stick them in the Nesquik Sand."

"That would be me," he responded in a dry and practically bored tone.

"_You_? Come on," she complained. "Do you honestly love being in the way and wasting everyone's time so much that you had to invent excuses to do it? Is that why you invented all these security checks and rules? I just want to have some fun without me or Ralph being stopped every time because you like to be a sour lemon drop and get in the way."

"Destination?" asked the Surge Protector, for all intents and purposes ignoring her complaints.

Rolling her eyes and groaning, she said, "Fix-it Felix Jr."

"Anything to declare?"

"You're way too slow and boring."

Without changing his tone in anyway, he responded, "I get that a lot."

"I'm sure you do," commented Vanellope. "Can I go now or do you have other dumb questions to ask, Officer Sparky?"

He turned his head slightly, apparently glancing at another game entrance, before answering, "I have all the information I require."

He vanished, dissolving away into static electricity and the girl took it as her cue to make a run for Ralph's game before she could be delayed further. Happily, the entrance to his console was across from hers. So Vanellope only needed to dodge a few other characters to reach it. And if they weren't moving fast enough and she couldn't just get around them easily, she wasn't afraid to glitch past the obstacle. She dove through the outlet just in case the Surge Protector decided to reappear.

Riding the slow and rickety train, Vanellope was practically bouncing by the time she rolled into the station. She could see the building, the one that was destroyed and rebuilt for every level. The Nicelanders were straightening up and the orange figure of Q*bert was vanishing into the newly-constructed houses. The inhabitants of Fix-it Felix Jr. barely even blinked at her arrival. She and Calhoun spent enough time in the game that it wasn't even a surprise to them anymore, though they'd probably always be jumpy around Felix's wife. But none of them were of any concern at the moment.

"Hey there, Stinkbrain," she greeted, skipping up to her friend. "Have a good day smashing stuff to bits and tossing Gene out of the building?"

Scooping her up with his giant and destructive hands, Ralph gave her a quick hug and chuckled, "Hey, Kid. Everything went great. And how'd your racing go?"

"It went awesome. Taffyta was creamed. Almost literally. And I was picked over half a dozen times in a row today."

Felix gave her a smile, "It should like you had a fine and dandy day. Any idea of what the two of you eager beavers might be planning this evening?"

"We're going exploring," Vanellope declared, climbing onto Ralph's shoulder and throwing up a fist. "It'll be so cool."

Ralph reached up and plucked her off, commenting, "Don't get too worked up. We're keeping it sort of tame. I was thinking we start with Tetris, maybe swing by Pac-Man later and say 'hi' to Clyde, and finish off by poking our heads in Dig Dug. You know, a few of the classics."

"Well, that's not exactly a night of trying to beat Sonic's speed or anything, but I'm up to it," she stated.

"Sounds like a swell idea," Felix remarked. 'I'm headed over to Hero's Duty to see Tamora." He gave a rather distant and happy look as Vanellope struggled not to giggle. "I've been thinking about my dynamite gal all day."

"I'm sure she's been thinking about you to," commented Ralph.

"Yeah, I bet you've been on her mind the whole time she's been blasting Cy-bug into pieces and yelling at her troops," added the girl, only partially joking.

"She's probably been too busy to think about me much," stated Felix, taking off his cap and twisting it slightly in his hands. "There have been a lot of players here today because of the weather."

"Really?" she asked, trying to get a glimpse of the outside world through the screen. She knew that their console was angled so that they could see through the front door of the arcade, but she wasn't at a very good position to look out at the moment. "What kind of weather?"

"Rain," answered Ralph. "All day, in fact. The kids prefer to do things inside when it's raining, so they end up at the arcade more often in bad weather."

"I'm glad it doesn't rain in Sugar Rush," Vanellope muttered. "I'd hate to have it interfere with my racing."

Heading towards the train out of the game, her friend pointed out, "It's probably for the best. I'd hate to figure out what would rain out of the sky in your game. Chocolate milk?"

She laughed and grabbed onto his oversized hand, tugging him along excitedly. Felix followed after them quietly, his rather goofy expression demonstrating that his thoughts were still on his wife.

* * *

The girl knew she didn't look like a gamer. From her love of the color pink, her blond hair, and the fact she wasn't a boy all suggested otherwise. Only the fact she wore glasses fit the normal gamer stereotype. But she loved to play all sorts of video games. There were times she believed that she spent more time at Litwak's arcade than she did at home. Her parents simply provided her allowance in quarters.

She'd just finished another day trying to beat her personal best at most of the games. Once the arcade closed for the night, she'd returned home to her awaiting school assignment and the knowledge that she would need at least a B. She didn't want to find out what would happen if she failed to maintain her grades. At the least, she'd have less time to try and get all the way through Hero's Duty without being eaten.

A distant rumble of thunder briefly tugged her attention away from her writing. She frowned, trying to remember if the forecast was supposed to be just for rain or if they mentioned the possibilities of lightning. The girl couldn't recall. Either way, it sounded like there was an actual storm rolling in. She shrugged to herself, simply satisfied that she'd made it home before the really bad weather could arrive.

**Yeah, I'm not even going to even guess when the next chapter will be. It could be soon or it could be months from now.**

**In regards to Vanellope's glitching, I've heard people claim it might actually be a special ability she's supposed to have in the game (like Candlehead being able to light up those cherry bombs when no one else can) and that she simply forgot how to use it properly. Hence why she could still teleport after resetting the game and was no longer trapped. And why the gamers could apparently press a button to activate it. Other people thing it really is a bug in the system since it does still look like a glitch in the program when it activates (the blue pixilation). I've decided to split the difference. She originally had the teleportation ability prior to Turbo's takeover, but it used to look all pretty and fancy in a way that would match the style of the game (in this case, vanishing and appearing in a cloud of sugary sparkles), but being turned into a glitch corrupted the animation for that sequence. Thus, it still works gameplay-wise for the players, but it doesn't look as nice anymore.**

**I'd love to have your feedback. It tends to make me happy. Thanks.**


	2. Severe Weather Advisory

**I'm glad so far that people are enjoying the story. A few of the reviews, however, seem to have the wrong impression about what I have in mind. Let me clear the confusion up. There will not be a "human character getting transferred to the video game world" involved. Nor will the Surge Protector be getting a girlfriend. And Turbo isn't showing up in this story. But even if I have no intentions of including those elements, I think you will enjoy the story anyway.**

After thirty years of doing the same thing, being treated like the garbage he spent his nights with, and dealing with the terrified and hostile Nicelanders and the pushover hero of the game, Ralph knew he wouldn't survive another few decades without something in his life changing. Of course, he never imagined that all he really needed to improve things was an energetic, formerly-outcast little girl with candy stuck in her black hair. He'd never imagined it when they first met, but he was so happy she stole that medal. All he'd wanted was a friend, a little respect, and for someone to simply recognize he was more than just the big guy who smashes the building. Vanellope did all three and she would have been enough even if Felix hadn't talked the Nicelanders into being more accepting of their co-worker.

Not that he wasn't thankful for Calhoun's influence on her husband and the repairman's new understanding of the difficulties of being considered bad. Watching Felix stand up for his "brother" rather than bend to the crowd's will was rather impressive. And entertaining since there were a few dropped jaws that would have made Pac-man envious when the hero demonstrated his new backbone.

But Vanellope made everything worth it. She saw him as her personal hero, regardless of his role in the game. She was always excited to see him, tossed insults at him in an affectionate game, and refused to reclaim her rightful royal kart in order to drive the one _they_ built. She climbed on his shoulders in defiance of all the characters that ran away when he approached. She smiled and followed him to Bad-Anon meetings, not even flinching when confronted with all the villains. Her acceptance of bad guys as not necessarily being _bad_ won her over some fans from the meetings and he honestly hoped she never told them about how she was treated as a glitch. Otherwise Taffyta and her friends might find themselves facing the other members of Bad-Anon in a protective mood. Vanellope was also helping Ralph win over some support. Even those rare characters that remained ignorant of Turbo's defeat in Sugar Rush were changing their opinion since it was hard to fear someone with an adorable winner perched on their shoulder.

So while Felix spent his evenings with his tough-as-nails, slightly scary wife, Ralph would seek his best friend and president of Sugar Rush. Sometimes he was content to watch her compete in the Random Roster Race and to cheer for the girl as she glitched past the other racers. Other times they tried to figure out something fun together in their games or in other consoles. It was a good thing that serving as leader of her game rarely required direct interference on her part; apparently her threat of execution and the fear of what their former bullying-victim might do if they annoyed her ensured they only asked for her ruling on emergency-level issues. As long as she could spend time with him, Ralph didn't mind. Seeing her happy always made his day.

Riding in the small train carts towards the Game Central Station, he listened to her eagerly discuss both her races and the possible things they could do while visiting the other consoles. She never seemed to slow down as she spoke, acting exactly like a child on a sugar rush. Which, considering her native game, was absolutely appropriate. By the time they reached the outlet, Vanellope was suggesting they add Frogger to their list of consoles to visit.

Ralph was too distracted listening to her eager suggestions to realize the three of them was about to step through the outlet until the familiar alarm sounded the Surge Protector materialized.

"Really?" he groaned, throwing his huge hands into the air in frustration.

Without looking up from his clipboard, the blue figure asked, "Name?"

"We represent the Lollipop Guild," chirped Vanellope.

"Name?" he repeated.

"Come on, Blue-boy," she whined. "We just went through this. Give it a rest for one night. You're worse than getting stuck in the taffy swamp."

"Fix-it Felix Jr. from Fix-it Felix Jr., sir," the repairman reported, instantly trying to cooperate with the Surge Protector. "I'm traveling with my brother, Wreck-it Ralph, and Vanellope Von Schweetz, sir. They're going to Tetris while I'm headed for Hero's Duty. None of us have anything to declare, sir."

"You're spoiling my fun, Felix," muttered the girl as the blue figure nodded to himself. "I could have kept this up for at least five more minutes."

"Well, just think about how much more time you'll have to enjoy yourselves in other games," he pointed out. "Being stubbornly unhelpful takes longer for everyone than to just go along with authorities."

"Good point," she responded. "Even though president out-ranks the static-powered hall monitor."

"Not outside your game, President Von Schweetz," the Surge Protector stated before vanishing to somewhere else in the Game Central Station.

"There you go," smiled Felix. "We can go on our way unhindered. Isn't it easier to just follow the rules without acting like a rude hooligan?"

Vanellope glanced up at Ralph and remarked in a deadpan voice, "Bet you three pieces of licorice that he'll pop back up next to the Tetris entrance."

"Definitely," he nodded, shifting the girl back up to his shoulders.

"You're awfully young to be such a sourpuss," remarked Felix, shaking his head at the child.

"I spent my life being chased off by donut cops and my fellow racers because one froot-loop of a character took over my game and kicked me out of the castle," Vanellope stated in a surprisingly cheerful voice. "That's what we call a 'learning experience.' That kind of makes it hard to be surprised by a little thing like the border guard checking on us way too often."

"He's just trying to do his job," defended the repairman as they began to move through the crowds.

"By picking on Ralph?" she asked, gesturing at him while easily balancing in place. "And me? What reason would he have to constantly question a poor, innocent child?"

Ralph resisted the urge to snort and instead suggested, "Maybe it has something to do with you driving your kart into the Game Central Station."

"Once," she said. "I did it once."

"Only because Ralph asked you to stop," Felix stated, taking a moment to dodge Sonic as he spoke to Ryu.

"I wouldn't have even done it in the first place if he wasn't always treating Ralph like a criminal," complained Vanellope.

"Calm down, Kid," the wrecker ordered. "I've told you before. He's more of an annoyance than anything. I'll survive without you going after the guy every time you see him."

"And that settles that," Felix declared, glancing at the entrance to Hero's Duty. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be on my way."

Ralph and Vanellope watched him bounce away towards his goal, his signature sound effect following each jump. To neither of their surprise, there was no alarm and the Surge Protector didn't materialize as he went through. Felix was very rarely stopped unless he was accompanying his friends. It occasionally happened, but not nearly at the frequency it occurred to the wrecker or Sugar Rush president.

"Which way now, Stinkbrain?" the girl asked, leaning forward from her position on his shoulder.

"So you're illiterate now?" he smirked, glancing up at her. "I would have thought a president would at least be able to read enough to make sure she doesn't sign something stupid. But what do I know about democracy?"

She responded by sticking her tongue out at him before starting to crane her neck in order to read the signs with the console names scrolling across them. Ralph resisted the urge to chuckle as he moved across the Game Central Station once more and she started muttering about how easy it would be to put peanut butter in his hair next time he visited. He didn't take her threat any more seriously than she did his comment about illiteracy. He could already see a grin starting to tug at her lips.

"There's Tetris," she pointed before turning her attention back to her friend. "So what's their game about?"

"Blocks," answered Ralph simply. "Different shaped blocks. The player is supposed to turn them and move them around as they slowly fall and when they completely cover a whole row, a layer vanishes. But if one section stacks up to the top, you lose. It's some kind of puzzle type thing. You have to be careful not to make a mistake that will keep the blocks from reaching the empty spots at the bottom."

Vanellope moaned, "That sounds boring."

"Hey, it might not be a candy-based racing game or anything, but it is a classic. Not to mention that it still draws plenty of quarters. The thing is addictive apparently," he countered. "There was supposed to be different versions of the game and some of them aren't in arcades, but people still come here to play it. Plus, the blocks start falling faster the longer you play. So if you're determined to have some speed involved, there's that."

"Fine," she shrugged. "We'll try it. But if it turns out to be boring, I'll blame you. Just because your game has blocks and is pretty cool doesn't mean all block-based games are."

"Hey, you had fun at that kart-building mini-game thing in your console," he pointed out. "Just keep an open mind, Kid."

She smiled slightly at him before her grin adopted a more mischievous look. He was very familiar with that particular expression when it showed up on her face. It usually led to her attempting a particularly insane, and impressive, stunt.

"Ralph, want to try something fun?"

Not knowing whether or not to be concerned about what she had on her mind, he asked hesitantly, "What?"

"I'll bet that we could get through the entrance and into the game before Officer Sparky can stop us," she smirked. "He doesn't show up until we try to go through, so we should be able to hurry through quick enough to keep him from annoying us."

For a moment, he opened his mouth to scold her slightly for her continued efforts to antagonize the Surge Protector. He knew he should set a good example for the girl. On the other hand, it would be so nice to go into a game without having to deal with the same annoying questions. Besides, he should already know where Ralph and Vanellope were headed since they told him almost _literally_ five minutes ago.

"All right, but don't take this as permission to start tormenting the guy on a regular basis again," stated the wrecker finally.

"Yes," she shouted excitedly, throwing up a fist as Ralph barreled forward and didn't even slow down as the familiar alarm buzzed and the blue figure tried to materialize.

* * *

He knew he should be irritated by the lack of respect they displayed by simply charging ahead rather than stopping. There was a reason that the noise sounded and he appeared, after all. Video game characters were supposed to halt and answer the questions clearly and concisely. The Surge Protector couldn't exactly stop them very easily since he spent most of his time intangible or simply immaterial. They could pass right through his humanoid form unless he added enough power to become solid. And even when he could actually physically touch something, the size of his projected self was only large enough to manhandle the smaller characters. Someone the size of Wreck-it Ralph that decided to ignore protocol and to simply go straight into a game rather than deal with the Surge Protector was beyond his ability to halt.

Unless he channeled enough power to the outlet in question and used a large amount of pure electricity to stop someone in their tracks. But not only would that be going against his primary function as protection against such power surges, but it could easily do serious harm to the character in question. And it would do possibly damage or destroy the Game Central Station itself. It could destroy himself. No, the Surge Protector wouldn't hit someone with that amount of electricity to make them stop. Especially when it was over something as minor as two characters getting tired of routine security checks. So, while annoyed by their behavior, he let it go without making a fuss and turned his attention back to other matters.

The arcade was barely closed and the Surge Protector already detected fifty-six characters leaving their own games and twenty-six were already in other consoles. His records indicated the numbers were below average for that time of night and day of the week. A curious anomaly, but nothing immediately concerning. Different factors could influence characters' decisions to wander outside their console. Everything from the traffic in the arcade during the day to the time of the year to the weather as seen through the game screen. And some of those factors were beyond what he could determine on his own.

It wasn't possible for the Surge Protector to actually see the outside world beyond a thin glimpse through the empty outlets that showed mostly a little light and maybe the floor. He tended to keep empty outlet sockets sealed though so wandering characters didn't slip through by mistake and vanish when they lost access to electricity. From his perusal of the internet when he could gleam information across his vague access to it, he'd determined that the players needed their atmosphere of air to survive and would quickly die without that readily available resource. Video game characters and electricity possessed a similar relationship and the only place they could survive without that power was inside their own games. That was why it was important for him to keep the characters aware of possible blackouts and power surges. That was why it was so important that Q*bert and his companions were added to the programming of Fix-it Felix Jr. when they created the bonus level, ensuring they were recognized as "native" to the game and relieving a concern of the Surge Protector's he'd possessed since their original game was unplugged. That was why it was so important that he know where every character was during an emergency, even though some games possessed large numbers of background characters that players rarely notice and only exist to serve as a cheering crowd or as defenseless bystanders awaiting a hero to stop the villain. No one ever said that the job was easy, but he performed it to the best of his ability and attempted to take as many precautions as possible to ensure their safety.

And, upon a momentary reflection of the last twenty-four to forty-eight hours, he recalled he'd been unable to connect to the internet to check the weather report. It wasn't unusual though. His ability to connect was sporadic at best, but the lack of the usual traffic made his wonder what he might have missed. If there was even just a thunderstorm, characters would be more hesitant to travel.

Though no one observing the blue figure would notice, the Surge Protector felt mildly concerned by the lack of substantial traffic. He could ask one of the character with a console with a proper view, but considering the difficulties in gaining clear answers from most of the population and the fact that two of them just demonstrated a short time ago a complete lack of respect for his questions, he decided to make a second attempt at accessing the internet.

Since trying to make that fragile connection took so much concentration, he dissolved his humanoid form back into pure electricity and turned his attention briefly away from his larger self that held so many characters. A distant part of his mind still monitored and recorded their movements, but the rest of him was focused on stretching out his awareness beyond the plastic housing and everything it contained. He couldn't leave the Game Central Station, not really, but he could reach out to that tentative connection to Mr. Litwak's computer and hope to find what he needed before he lost his figurative grip. Even if he didn't have a physical body in this form (beyond the surge protector itself), trying to do this particular stunt always made him feel stretched thin and uncomfortable.

He knew that if his attachment to the computer system slipped, his awareness would be flung back into his plastic housing. What he didn't know was what would happen to him if he lost his connection to the Game Central Station instead. Would he simply be autonomous from his larger form, able to explore the games in the same manner the characters could visit other locations? Or would his identity, personality, and memories cease to exist and all that would be left over was a simple surge protector, a piece of basic technology with no higher function? Or was it impossible for him to lose his connection to the Game Central Station because he and it were one and the same, so worrying about such things was a waste of time? He didn't know, but he did know that trying to reach outside the surge protector so far produced a rather uncomfortable sensation.

Ignoring the odd feeling, he strove for the connection to the internet and the familiar website that reported the local weather. It was like searching for needle in a haystack that was currently being carried by a tornado, but he knew what it felt like. He knew how it felt even if his technique at searching the internet was ineffective by nature. There was a familiarity to it after locating it so many times without the aid of tools like a computer mouse or keys. It was just like he could recognize the dozens of practically identical background characters as soon as they stepped into the Game Central Station.

As he read the located weather report, the news caused him enough concern to break that fragile grip and he fell back the rest of the way into the plastic housing of the surge protector. He didn't mind the quick return, though. Three words he found on the webpage were enough to force him into action.

Severe Thunderstorm Warning.

Not just rain, but a _severe_ thunderstorm. No wonder the characters with the best view of the outside weren't traveling much. While there was a chance that nothing would happen or that any electrical surges that might occur would be small enough that the characters wouldn't even be aware they happened, those weather conditions could result in blackouts and such that couldn't be dealt with. On the one hand, panic would almost immediately sprout up once he sent out warnings to return to their games and the illogical behavior that such emotions produced would hinder the attempts to evacuate the Game Central Station. On the other, time was of the essence and the longer he waited, the more characters would leave their games and spread out. Decision made, he switched all the public service announcement signs to the bright red and blaring warning message that everyone should return to their native consoles immediately. As predicted, shouts of alarm erupted and they began running around almost at random.

Reforming his physical form in the middle of the chaos, the Surge Protector started directing the frantic characters and trying to restore some order.

* * *

Ralph smiled as Vanellope prepared to turn the next L-shaped block on its side. The girl's initial disinterest in the game vanished quickly upon starting. She was glitching onto the falling blocks so she could either flip them or shove them through the air into the right position. Anything that fell too far or landed in the wrong spot, the wrecker would smash it. Sometimes they even took advantage of the fact they could see more depth than could be viewed by normal players. If things get too complicated, they could always get rid of a particular piece by tossing it behind the row. Perhaps not the correct method to play Tetris, but it worked for them.

"Come on, straight piece," the girl muttered, landing on the taller pile of blocks and staring towards the dark sky where they formed. "Come on, straight piece."

"No luck," shrugged Ralph as a T-shaped block appeared and began to gradually decend.

"I can work with that," she laughed, glitching upwards again to reach the piece.

"Try to shove it that way," he suggested, pointing to the left end of the screen.

The pieces of the game were thicker than they appeared through the screen, making it easier for them to stand on and manipulate. If they were truly two dimensional, he and Vanellope would have probably cut themselves in half trying to play the game.

"Hey, we should try building a house or something out of these," the girl said abruptly. "It would be awesome. And then we could knock it down."

"If we wanted to do that, we could have stayed in my game," pointed out Ralph.

"But the bricks don't vanish like that when you line them up right," she responded, bouncing off a Z-shaped block.

Chuckling slightly, he dodged the falling piece as Vanellope appeared back on his shoulder in a burst of blue pixilation. She wore a huge grin across her face and was leaning back in an attempt to read the level listed above them.

"I wonder if I can beat the high scores on this thing," she muttered.

"Just remember it speeds up as you play," he commented before she glitched her way back to turn the materializing L-block.

As Ralph watched the girl bounce on the next falling piece, something caught his attention. After thirty years in the arcade, he was used to the flashing patterns of lights that made came from the different games. Even from a different vantage point, he recognized sort of the sequences and colors enough that he no longer even noticed them. It was the same way with background music that played on the different consoles. He might hear it for the first couple of minutes upon entering a game, but then it quickly was shoved to the back of his mind and ignored. It was only when there was something different added to the normal background sights and sounds that he would notice it.

A flash of light pulled his attention to the screen and the arcade outside it. There was no immediate source for the unexpected light, so Ralph almost decided to ignore it until a faint rumbling that was almost drowned out by the Tetris background music followed. That noise, paired with the brief flash of light from before, was one of the more concerning sounds that could be heard in the arcade. Thunder was not a good thing for someone who depended on electricity for their existence.

Several thoughts occurred almost simultaneously. First, Ralph knew they needed to get out of there. Even if the arcade hadn't experienced a true loss of power to the consoles in years, the danger still existed and it was insane to run the risk merely to continue the game. Being trapped in another arcade game when the electricity went off was just as deadly as being killed in another game. Second, he knew that Vanellope wouldn't be at all aware of that risk. She'd never possessed the ability to leave her console until recently. There was no reason for her to know about the dangers of thunderstorms since she was always safe in her own arcade. If he took the time to explain to her what was going on and why they needed to leave _now_, there was a strong possibility that she would either not take the threat seriously enough or it would take too long to explain it well enough for her to accept the danger. And third, even if she managed to understand why they needed to escape back to their own games, she would insist on staying with her slower companion. Ralph might not be the slowest character in the arcade, but he was certainly slower than Vanellope when she started glitching. There was no telling if or when a problem might erupt from the weather, but he refused to let her be in danger even a second longer than necessary simply because she wouldn't leave him behind.

He knew she would never leave to save herself. Vanellope already demonstrated that once when she saved him a Mentos-and-soda-powered volcano. So he needed her to escape quickly without telling her about the danger. Even if the danger was merely a possibility rather than a certainty.

"Hey, Kid," he called out. "Ready to head for the next game? I'll race you."

She glitched down to where he was standing, a brief expression of confusion on her face. Apparently she didn't expect to leave quite yet or as abruptly as this. But Ralph kept a calm expression on his face and Vanellope sprang on the challenge just as he knew she would. The dark-haired girl could never resist a race. It was simply part of who she was.

"All right, Stinkbrain," she grinned mischievously. "If you want a race, you've got it. But I won't go easy on you."

He nodded quickly, "Perfect. First one to the Game Central Station wins." When another flash of lightning flickered from outside the console and thunder rumbled over the native sounds of the arcade, Ralph swiftly added, "Ready, set, go!"

Without any further prompting, she vanished in a flash of pixels and began glitching across the block-covered landscape of Tetris. Ralph followed as quickly as the larger and slower character could, dodging and smashing through the still-following obstacles. He knew he would keep moving, keep heading for safety. Once they reached the Game Central Station, it would be easy enough to shove her into Sugar Rush with a warning to stay there until the storm passed. He could explain better when it was safer. But she would be fine. She'd be safe soon. She'd definitely be safe sooner than he would.

**Sorry about the wait. I am not always the fastest at updating anymore. Especially with too many projects competing for my attention. But I still try my best. Thanks again to those who review. I deeply appreciate it. I hope you're enjoying the story so far.**


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